çılbır — Turkey

Çılbır is a Turkish dish built from two simple elements: poached eggs and yogurt beaten with garlic. The yogurt is spread thick on a plate, the warm poached eggs are laid on top, and the whole plate is finished with a drizzle of melted butter carrying the colour and heat of dried pepper. Sources report çılbır being eaten by Ottoman court cooks as early as the fifteenth century, and it remains common across Turkey today, served at breakfast or as a light meal at any time of day, usually with bread for scooping up the yogurt and butter. To prepare it, yogurt is beaten smooth with crushed garlic and a little salt, then spread across a plate. Eggs are poached one at a time in water with a little vinegar, so the whites hold together around the soft yolk, then lifted straight onto the yogurt while still warm. Butter is melted in a small pan with Aleppo pepper or paprika until it turns a deep red, then poured over the eggs just before serving. Reports describe related dishes under other names in nearby regions: in parts of the Balkans, including Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia, a dish called čimbur uses fried eggs rather than poached ones, and a nearly identical fried-egg dish known as panagyurski eggs is reported from Bulgaria. This version keeps the eggs poached and the yogurt seasoned mainly with garlic, without further additions.